Four Guangdong Residents Sentenced to Up to Ten Years in Prison for Practicing Falun Gong

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Dec. 28, 2024 | By a Minghui correspondent in Guangdong Province, China

(Minghui.org) Four Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, residents, were sentenced to prison in late December 2024, for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Li Zhuozhong, a former middle school teacher in his 50s, and his wife, Ms. Liao Yuanqun, a former kindergarten teacher, were both sentenced to ten years and fined a total of 150,000 yuan. Mr. Xie Yujun, 56, and Ms. Liao Juanna were each given five years and fined 70,000 yuan.

Mr. Li and Ms. Liao Yuanqun were arrested on April 19, 2024. The police spent over three hours searching the couple’s place. Several printers and over 200,000 yuan in cash were confiscated. Ms. Liao Juanna (no relation) was seized on the same day.

Mr. Li was found to have tuberculosis shortly after his arrest and denied admission by the local detention center. The police held him at the Meizhou City Addiction Treatment Center, also known as the Meizhou City Third People’s Hospital. He was locked in a room on the sixth floor and was the only person on the entire floor.

On April 24, 2024, the same group of officers descended at Mr. Xie’s home to arrest him. As he wasn’t in, they began to search the place. His wife tried to stop them. The police produced a search warrant with no signature and continued the raid. Mr. Xie’s cellphone, media player, flash-drives, desktop computer, and surveillance cameras were confiscated.

The police hunted for Mr. Xie and arrested him a day later. Both his wife and ten-year-old son, who were intimidated during the home-raid, were placed on house arrest. His wife was informed on May 27 that his arrest had been approved.

Mr. Li’s mother was severely distressed by his and his wife’s arrests. She was hospitalized on July 10, 2024, due to complications of diabetes. The doctor issued her a critical condition notice and transferred her to the intensive care unit. The family demanded that the police release Mr. Li to allow him to visit his mother. The police refused the request. The police again refused his family’s request to have him attend his mother’s funeral, when she passed away at the end of that month.

While the couple and the two other practitioners didn’t know each other before their arrests, the police combined their cases into one and submitted it to the Xingning City Procuratorate in late July 2024. The joint case was then reassigned to the Meixian District Procuratorate on August 20. The Meixian District Court held two hearings of the case, on October 18 and November 12, 2024, before convicting the four practitioners around December 20.

Prior to their latest sentencing, Mr. Li has served two labor camp terms, totaling three years, Ms. Liao Yuanqun served a one-year labor camp term, and Mr. Xie was incarcerated for nine and a half years, including two labor camp terms and a prison term.

See the following report, titled “Guangdong Couple Arrested for Their Shared Faith, Husband Develops Serious Medical Condition, Is Detained in Isolation,” for Mr. Li and Ms. Liao Yuanqun’s past persecution.

Mr. Xie’s Past Persecution

Mr. Xie went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in June 2000. He was arrested and taken directly to the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp in Guangdong to serve a two-year term. He was subjected to various torture methods, including solitary confinement, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, and whipping with copper wire. After his term expired, he was taken to the Xingning City Detention Center for further persecution.

Shortly after his release in July 2002, he went to Shenzhen to look for a job, only to be escorted back to Xingning and detained for a few days.

In September 2002, Mr. Xie was arrested and detained at the Meizhou City Brainwashing Center, located in a drug rehab center. The 610 Office agents ordered the brainwashing center’s staffers to beat him. After the brainwashing session ended on November 29, 2002, the authorities detained him for another month before releasing him.

From then on, local police and residential committee staffers often came to harass him at home or at his workplace.

A few officers broke into Mr. Xie’s home on February 9, 2004 and searched around. His daughter was only four months old at the time. He managed to escape while being taken to the police station and was forced to live away from home.

Li Zongqi, a community director, offered 1,000 yuan reward for his family members to provide his whereabouts. Li also arranged some staffers to harass Mr. Xie’s wife and spread rumors to damage her reputation. They also distributed photos of his wife and daughter, and encouraged the public to report on the family.

Mr. Xie was arrested on July 10, 2004, along with Mr. Liu Shangli, after being reported by the owner of a motorcycle repair store for talking to him about Falun Gong. Both of them were given 2.5 years at the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp. While he was serving time, his wife struggled to care for their daughter by herself.

Mr. Xie’s next arrest was on October 27, 2009, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong materials. Xing Zhengquan, the deputy director of Xingning City Domestic Security Division who was also responsible for his latest arrest in 2024, pried open his door the next morning and confiscated his two computers, cell phone and a router. He was held at the Wuhua County Detention Center.

The Wuhua County Court sentenced Mr. Xie to five years on March 16, 2010. He was again subjected to a variety of torture methods at the Meizhou Prison, including drug administration, being dragged on the ground, being hung up, and electric shocks. He was released on May 22, 2013.

Torture illustration: dragging